European firms 'lack environmental strategy'

Although 20 per cent of Europe's big industrial groups have already been sentenced for infringing environmental laws, 50 per cent still have no strategy in this area, according to a survey carried out by an international environment auditing and consultancy agency, BDA Deloitte & Touche.

Of firms which did have a global environmental policy, a quarter had not reviewed theirs for at least two years, making them of 'limited use'. The report stressed the contrasts in Europe, where all Swedish firms implemented a full policy but only 18 per cent did so in Turkey.

In Britain, 69 per cent of firms include environment in their health and safety policy. But British industrialists, unlike their counterparts elsewhere in Europe, think public demand for environment-friendly goods has reached a peak and is likely to drop in the future.

French firms, which scored badly in the report, are 'visibly concerned with the image ...

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